Problems With Handling After Tyres Swapped Round!

[rolley]

This weekend just gone i decided to fit my new Toyo Proxes on! In my wisdom I decided to put them on the back, and put the Bridgestones off the back onto the front of the car!

My reasons were I'm heavy on fronts and I want Toyos all round for the summer! So thought bridgestones will wear nicely over the winter ready for playtime next summer!

Anyway treads on the Bridgestones are 5mm at least, no deformation (from what I can see) and they are in good condition.

My problem is this, the car now feels wobbly under load, VSC beeps on corners for no need, the car seems to be trying to correct itself a bit as when in corners I can feel it taking power away from the wheels then i get a surge and the power comes back, meaning I have to fine adjust the cars position on the road (obviously TC and VSC again)!

It is also pulling to the right, not as bad as it was on friday when i changed the tyres cause I had the cars alignment/tracking done on Saturday, I did this thinking it might solve the problem. Its helped a tiny bit but its still uneasy up front!

I've narrowed it down to the tyres (obviously)! Am thinking about getting them balanced, yet i don't get any steering vibration!

Does anybody have a clue as to why it could be happening?

Rolley

[cfc1]

You had the tracking done... was this before or after you swapped the tyres?.. what condition were the previous tyres on the front?

If the precious tyres were worn on one side and present when the tracking was done, it is possible that due to getting it done with worn tyres it isn't quite right... it is always good to have evenly worn (or indeed new) tyres on when getting tracking done... so when the new(er) tyres go on, the car still fights a little to wear them down on one edge again.

How are the ball joints and bushes?.. If these are worn it can cause the symptoms you have mentioned.

Balancing - Balance being out will cause a vibration through the steering wheel (or the full car if the rears are a mile out) it won't cause the car to pull to one side, prolonged use of unbalanced wheels will cause uneven wear, but not just one edge... it can cause the tyre tread to feel like the edge of a 50p coin kind of thing, this can lead to handling problems and vibration at the same time. Easy to check.. run the palm of your hand round the tread of the tyre and see if the tread feels lumpy , paying close attention to both edges as it can be more prominent in these areas... do it on both directions. (forwards and backwards)

How are the brakes?.. A slightly sticking caliper can cause the car to pull to one side as can an imbalance in the braking... a brake test on a rolling road at an MOT station is the best way to check.

Even although you feel you have narrowed it down to the tyres it isn't always the case... get the easiest and cheapest options checked 1st.. the only way to get to the bottom of it is the process of elimination... get the garage to re-check the tracking especially if it was done with worn tyres.

[Jock Fran]

I had the exact same thing!

New Toyos on the back, Bridgestones onto the front.

Give the tyres some miles to bed in and see if you still get the same problems.

The day I got mine fitted the VSC beeped at me driving round a corner pretty slowly. I think Toyo maybe have extra slippery shipment coatings or something!

I dunno how sensitive the system is but it might even be due to the new tyres having a bigger radius...

If your old tyres were at say 2mm, then you've probably increased the radius by 6mm or so, which will be about 2%. So the wheels will be doing less rotations for the same speed than they were before. I'd be surprised if it made that much difference, but you never know!

More likely to be them bedding in!

Link for slippery brand new T1-Rs!!

[baz t]

Hi my friends . I am just about to change my tyres all round and been getting great reports on the toyos BUT cant seam to get the size for the wheel !!!!!195 55 16 the tyre people keep telling me to get 205 50 16!!!! is this safe and as anybody done this many thanks baz

[chrisio]

Hi my friends . I am just about to change my tyres all round and been getting great reports on the toyos BUT cant seam to get the size for the wheel !!!!!195 55 16 the tyre people keep telling me to get 205 50 16!!!! is this safe and as anybody done this many thanks baz

I did this years back on my original T-Sport and completely messed the handling up.

The car rolled more on corners and I hated it.

Some people on here however will sing the praises of fitting wider tyres.

Maybe it's all down to the individuals driving

On the subject of fitting the rear tyres to the front, my friend had a terrible wobble on the rear of her Corolla T-Spirit.

They removed the wheels and found that the tyres had suffered the 'saw tooth' effect

It turns out that you should always fit the rear tyres on the front and new tyres on the back to prevent this, however, she had always just always fitted new tyres to the front which had caused the rears to suffer the damage.

Basically, as the rears are not driven, just pulled along so to speak, they suffer flat spots which look like saw teeth if viewed from the side which cause drumming.

If fitted to the front with this damage it would cause the car to handle erratically.

So, check the tread depth all round the tyre to check for inconsistancies.

I had never heard of this problem before and had never spotted it when the wheels were on the car so it's woth a look

[rolley]

You had the tracking done... was this before or after you swapped the tyres?.. what condition were the previous tyres on the front?

If the precious tyres were worn on one side and present when the tracking was done, it is possible that due to getting it done with worn tyres it isn't quite right... it is always good to have evenly worn (or indeed new) tyres on when getting tracking done... so when the new(er) tyres go on, the car still fights a little to wear them down on one edge again.

How are the ball joints and bushes?.. If these are worn it can cause the symptoms you have mentioned.

Balancing - Balance being out will cause a vibration through the steering wheel (or the full car if the rears are a mile out) it won't cause the car to pull to one side, prolonged use of unbalanced wheels will cause uneven wear, but not just one edge... it can cause the tyre tread to feel like the edge of a 50p coin kind of thing, this can lead to handling problems and vibration at the same time. Easy to check.. run the palm of your hand round the tread of the tyre and see if the tread feels lumpy , paying close attention to both edges as it can be more prominent in these areas... do it on both directions. (forwards and backwards)

How are the brakes?.. A slightly sticking caliper can cause the car to pull to one side as can an imbalance in the braking... a brake test on a rolling road at an MOT station is the best way to check.

Even although you feel you have narrowed it down to the tyres it isn't always the case... get the easiest and cheapest options checked 1st.. the only way to get to the bottom of it is the process of elimination... get the garage to re-check the tracking especially if it was done with worn tyres.

I had the car tracked after i fitted the tyres. The original fronts were badly worn on the outside walls which coincides with the toe being out.

One thing i have noticed. My (new only done 6k) front brake discs are cracking! I noticed this on the day i changed the tyres, but... i really didn't think that this was the culprit to the cars feel, only because i did not have the wobbly feel and the VSC kicking in with the old tyres. Thats why i totally dismissed it until you mentioned it and after driving back from work today.

When i'm in a corner i can hear the pads binding against the disc! Now i know you do get some pad touchin the disc when cornering especially underload, but.. i'm noticing it squeling and part grazing. Now i'm not sure as yet the severity of the cracks on the other side of the disc, so when they are off i can see how much damage they've got and look for any signs of sticking pads. I'm having new replacement discs sent out from the manufacturer, problem is they're made to order so i'm having to wait till next week to get them. Another thing to mention is the brakes seem to be fading, and they do not seem to bite as well as they originally did. So fingers crossed this is the culprit, however i won't find out till the weekend after next.

As for the tyres i'm not getting any vibration so balancing is ok i think. So all fingers are pointed at the discs, will have to wait for the new ones to see if it is though. If it is the brakes.... OHHH How blond am i gonna feel for not even thinking twice about the discs!

As for slippery tyres, i have experienced this, its common with new tyres, you have to give them a few weeks/miles to bed them in. But... as my car is now limping on the brakes i'm not going to push the car (otherwise it will end up in a hedge), so will hopefully have bedded them in when the new discs are on.

Rolley

p.s thanx cfc for the pointers (as you can see i couldn't see the woods for the trees) lmao